Lausanne, March 20 : The international hockey federation (FIH) Thursday introduced major changes to the structure of the sport including reducing the 70-minute game to 60 minutes comprising four 15-minute quarters instead of two 35-minute halves. The changes will come into effect from Sep 1.

After the first and third quarters there will be a two-minute break while the existing 10-minute halftime will remain unchanged. The four-quarter model has been tried and implemented by both the Euro Hockey League and the Hockey India League.

Lausanne (Switzerland), Dec 29 : India take on arch-rivals Pakistan in their opening fixture of the FIH Hero Honda World Cup hockey tournament to be held in New Delhi from Feb 28 to March 13, according to the match schedule announced by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) here Tuesday.

India are placed in pool B along with Pakistan, Australia, Spain, England and South Africa while pool A includes defending champions Germany, the Netherlands, Argentina, Korea, New Zealand and Canada.

Lausanne, Switzerland - Five-time Olympic speed skating champion Claudia Pechstein will hear the outcome of an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against a ban imposed for blood doping on November 25, sport's highest tribunal announced Thursday.

A decision was originally expected this week and the deferral means Pechstein can not compete in this weekend's World Cup event in Hamar, Norway.

Lausanne, Switzerland - The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Friday granted Chelsea a suspension of FIFA's transfer ban, allowing the English Premier League club to sign players during the January transfer window.

Chelsea were banned from signing any new players until 2011 after being found guilty of inducing Lens player Gael Kakuta to breach his contract with the French club two years ago.

Clichy was also banned from playing for four months by the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber.

Lausanne, Switzerland - Swimming's controlling body FINA on Wednesday announced that all doping tests undertaken at the recent swimming world championship had returned negative.

In a statement released in Lausanne FINA said that they had taken 252 tests from swimmers, who broke an astonishing 43 world records at the meet, 30 from the open water swimming, 33 from diving, 11 from synchronized swimming and 65 from water polo.

Lausanne, Switzerland - The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed Friday an appeal by Romanian striker Adrian Mutu against a FIFA order that he pay former club Chelsea 17.17 million euros (24.14 million dollars) in damages for breach of contract.

Mutu was sacked by the English Premier League after testing positive for cocaine in 2004 a year after joining them from Parma and was ordered to pay the sum by football's ruling body last year.

The 30-year-old has since gone on to rebuild his career, joining Juventus in 2005 despite serving a seven-month ban for the cocaine offence before moving on to Fiorentina in 2006. (dpa)

Lausanne, Switzerland - The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) confirmed Monday that five-time Olympic speed skating champion Claudia Pechstein and the German Speed Skating Association (DESG) have both filed appeals against her doping ban.

The International Skating Union (ISU) announced on July 3 that it had banned Pechstein for two years until February 2011 for blood doping due to abnormal blood values and abnormal changes of the values in various tests, most notably at the February 7/8 worlds in Norway.

Lausannne, Switzerland - The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) granted Tuesday a stay of the execution of a FIFA decision to hand a four-month ban to Egypt international Essam El Hadary, pending a final ruling of the goalkeeper's appeal.

In April of this year, FIFA banned Swiss club FC Sion from signing any new players until the end of the 2009-10 season because El Hadary had been signed before his contract with Al-Ahly had expired.

Lausanne, Switzerland - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has renewed its broadcasting deal with the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) for coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2016 Summer Games.

The IOC said in a statement Thursday that ASBU will have at least 200 hours of coverage in 2016 and a daily highlight show from Sochi in 2014 in the deal covering 20 states including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.

Lausanne, Switzerland - Abdel Mohamed Halim of Sudan, a former African football supremo and International Olympic Committee member, the IOC said on Friday. He was 99 years old.

Halim was an IOC member 1968-1982 and later an honorary member of the Olympic body.

He made a big contribution to African football as founding member of the continent's football federation in 1957, organizer of the first African Nations Cup the same year in his native Sudan, and African football supremo 1987-1988.

Lausanne, Switzerland - The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Friday cancelled a fine of 10,000 dollars imposed on Peru striker Claudio Pizarro by his nation's football federation (PFF) for allegedly misbehaving after a 2007 match with Brazil.

The CAS said in a statement that "the facts put forward by the PFF in relation to Pizarro were not supported by concrete evidence" and added that "the incidents reported by the PFF were not dealt with either in the PFF regulations, or in the FIFA regulations."

Lausanne, Switzerland - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday announced that Briton Mark Adams has been appointed Director of Communications.

The 45-year-old, who is joining the Olympic body from the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was Managing Director and Head of Media and Communications, will be taking over his new position at the end of May.

In a statement the IOC said that the former journalist worked for several television stations before joining the World Economic Forum.

Hoch was the trainer of the Austrian cross-country ski team at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin when the team9s accommodation was searched by Italian police and medical items which could be used for blood doping and blood manipulation were found.

The Liechtenstein national was subsequently given a life ban by skiing's ruling body FIS for possession of a prohibited doping method and assistance/complicity in doping.

Lausanne, Switzerland - The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) Thursday dismissed cyclist Michael Rasmussen's appeal against the two-year ban he received for doping from the Monegasque Cycling Federation (FMC) last June.

"Consequently, Michael Rasmussen is suspended for a period of two years, starting on 26 July 2007," said CAS in a statement.

Rasmussen was kicked out of the 2007 Tour while leading after lying about his whereabouts in connection with doping tests. He told the International Cycling Federation